David Ben-Gurion

David Ben-Gurion (16 October 1886-1 December 1973) was Prime Minister of Israel from 17 May 1948 to 26 January 1954, preceding Moshe Sharett, and again from 3 November 1955 to 26 June 1963, succeeding Sharett and preceding Levi Eshkol. A member of the social democratic Rafi and Mapai parties, Ben-Gurion was the primary founder and the first prime minister of the state of Israel.

Biography
David Gruen was born in Plonsk, Congress Poland, Russian Empire on 16 October 1886 to a family of Polish Jews, and he became a Zionist and emigrated to Palestine in 1906. He became active in the trade union movement and in journalism until he went to the University of Constantinople from 1912 to 1914 and obtained a law degree. He was expelled by the Ottoman authorities for his renewed work in the trade unions, so he joined the Jewish Legion. After World War I, he became one of the organizers of the Mapai and of the Jewish Federation of Labor, of which he served as general secretary from 1921 to 1935. In 1935, he became chairman of the Jewish Agency, thus effectively becoming the leader of the Jewish community in PAlestine. He opposed the radical actions of IRgun under Menachem Begin, which he felt undermined British goodwill towards an independent Jewish state. Instead, he organized the influx of large refugee movements, which made a Jewish state more viable and more inevitable.

In 1948, Ben-Gurion became Prime Minister of the newly founded state of Israel, andhe remained government until 1963, except for two years of chosen retirement. Under his leadership, Israel survived the initial threat to its existence when it was attacked by its Arab neighbors from 1948 to 1949, and Israel was able to withstand subsequent Arab hostilities against its existence. Through agricultural and social reforms, he established the foundations of the new state and created a stable country, despite its culturally and socially heterogenous population which had immigrated from all over the world, most of them with experiences of persecution. He founded a new liberal party, Rafi, in 1965, and he remained in the Knesset until 1970. He died three years later.